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Jukai

Just thought I'd mention that I went to a 5 day sesshin last weekend, led by Paul Haller of the San Francisco Zen Center and took the precepts at the end of it. I managed the sesshin ok with a lot of help from a kind friend. My new name is Taizan Shin Do,

Re: Jukai

Originally Posted by HezB

Congratulations, Taizan (do you wear a loin cloth?)

Good to see the Dharma flourishing in old "Norn Iron".

Now, are you a Catholic Buddhist, or a Protestant Buddhist :?: :P

Me Taizan you Jain? There were 50 of us crammed into a room in Benburb priory - great to see it. I love the atmosphere of 50 people being completely still and silent. It's funny - there seem to be more Catholics attracted to Zen than Protestants in NI. Don't know why that is. Zen seems a more 'Presbyterian' i.e. starker and freer of ornamentation, form of Buddhism to me,

Re: Jukai

Thanks for all the encouragement and kind comments. I have sat 5 day sesshins in the past (this was fully ressidential, starting at 6.20 am to 9pm) - but I was a bit anxious about the accessibility of the old priory this one was held in, since I am in a wheelchair. I took to heart this teaching from a John Tarrant teisho on a koan:

Itís so obvious, once you know the trick. If you walk up to a cliff, a door will appear. The obstacle is itself the gate. This only happens if Iím willing to keep walking. Each wall is a large, rather smooth, dark expanse and I keep walking toward it without knowing what will happen and then a doorway appears